Sony admits utter PSN failure: your personal data has been stolen

Sony has finally come clean about the "external intrusion" that has caused the company to take down the PlayStation Network service, and the news is almost as bad as it can possibly get. The hackers have all your personal information, although Sony is still unsure about whether your credit card data is safe. Everything else on file when it comes to your account is in the hands of the hackers.

In other words, Sony's security has failed in a spectacular fashion, and we're just now finding out about it. In both practical and PR terms, this is a worst-case scenario.

What did they get?

Here is the data that Sony is sure has been compromised if you have a PlayStation Network Account:

Your name

Your address (city, state, and zip)

Country

E-mail address

Birthday

PSN password and login name

"It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained," Sony announced. While the company claims that there is "no evidence" that credit card information has been compromised, it won't rule out the possibility.

Their advice is to be safe, rather than sorry. "If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained."

What can you do?

You are warned to keep watch over your accounts, and to be aware of your heightened risk of fraud due to the security breach. "For your security, we encourage you to be especially aware of e-mail, telephone, and postal mail scams that ask for personal or sensitive information," the company said. "Sony will not contact you in any way, including by email, asking for your credit card number, social security number or other personally identifiable information."

Sony has also provided a wealth of sources for data and protection against identity theft.

You may wish to visit the web site of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission at www.consumer.gov/idtheft or reach the FTC at 1-877-382-4357 or 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20580 for further information about how to protect yourself from identity theft. Your state Attorney General may also have advice on preventing identity theft, and you should report instances of known or suspected identity theft to law enforcement, your State Attorney General, and the FTC. For North Carolina residents, the Attorney General can be contacted at 9001 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-9001; telephone (877) 566-7226; or www.ncdoj.gov. For Maryland residents, the Attorney General can be contacted at 200 St. Paul Place, 16th Floor, Baltimore, MD 21202; telephone: (888) 743-0023; or www.oag.state.md.us.

To be fair, Sony does apologize for the inconvenience. There is still no update on when service will be restored, but that is the least of your concerns if you have a PlayStation Network account. It's time to change your passwords, at the very least, and if you're like to be completely safe it's not a bad idea to cancel your credit or debit cards and request replacements.

isn't worst case scenario kindof overstating the issue.. IF they got credit card data then yes that is very bad but they still can't confirm that.. outside of that, they have your name, your address, your phone number and your PSN login and password. All of these with the exception of the latter are obtainable via a phone book if your listed and through a lookup service if the person is willing to pay for it. Best case sceario, you change your login and password when the service comes back up, worst case scenario you cancel your credit cards..

It doesn't really bother me that this occurred (I mean it does, but I'm a "Shit Happens" subscriber, so) what upsets me is how long it took them to tell people how much information had been compromised.

I find it highly doubtful that they just today verified that user data had been compromised.

How can they just give us links to resources about identity theft. They should be forced to insure PSN buyers for 3 years after the fact and eat a couple of billion in the process. Fucking cunts. I wish I hadn't bought a PS3 slim. At least my passwords are all unique...

Wow, I cancelled the card tied to my Sony account yesterday and requested a new number. Talk about convenient timing. I should hope this finally puts a stop to the PSN vs. Xbox Live arguments. In the five years I've had a 360 and paid for Live not once have I had to worry about a week long outage and my personal data being stolen.

Well great target selection by the hacker(s). I mean if CC #s were compromised, which seems likely considering the spectacular fashion of the security breach, this might just be the largest theft of account info, no? At least publically known.

I honestly don't know if I had my credit card listed in my account data, because I never bought anything from the PSN, but would it have forced me to enter one even to download free items like some other services? Because if so I have downloaded free items.

It doesn't really bother me that this occurred (I mean it does, but I'm a "Shit Happens" subscriber, so) what upsets me is how long it took them to tell people how much information had been compromised.

I find it highly doubtful that they just today verified that user data had been compromised.

This. That no one outside Sony even knew what had brought the service down for the first few days (until now?) is unforgivable. The first day they should've said that it was probably hackers, and that you might want to change passwords and security questions with other sites as required.

So wonderful that the PS3 has been cracked. This is everyone that anyone could wish for, right?

There should be zero correlation between the PS3 hack and this. PSN should be secure no matter what clients are connecting to it. I wouldn't be surprised if that's not the case, because Sony is terrible at software, but that's how it should be.

So wonderful that the PS3 has been cracked. This is everything that anyone could wish for, right?

I look at it as another step in the continuing evolution of network security. Sometimes you need to be attacked in order to learn how to defend against future attacks. Unfortunately, in this case there is a huge potential for harm to innocent bystanders. But in any case, place blame where blame belongs: on the actual criminals whoever they might be, and on Sony for having such weak security.